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Philadelphia Inquirer. It described his upcoming charity event at the Cathedral of Learning and provided a brief synopsis of their adventures in Greece, complete with a photograph from some random press conference. He and Jones had done so many during the past year they all ran together in his mind.
‘That really pisses me off,’ Jones growled.
‘What does?’
‘That they used that picture for the story. It makes my ass look fat.’
Payne shook his head. He was amazed that Jones was a year older than he was and not twenty years younger — because Jones sure acted like a teenager at times. ‘Are you finished?’
‘With what?’
‘Being an idiot.’
Jones nodded. ‘I guess you want to talk about the article, huh?’
‘Not much to discuss as far as I’m concerned. It simply means that Ashley wasn’t lying about everything she told us at Heinz Chapel. Remember, she mentioned the article there.’
‘True,’ Payne said, ‘but in my opinion, it means more than that.’
‘Such as?’
‘Because of this, I think the odds are pretty good she came to Pittsburgh to meet with us, not someone else. It also might explain why a second gunman showed up today.’
‘How so?’
Payne explained his theory. ‘Let’s assume both gunmen are on the same side of things. The first one went to Pitt to eliminate Ashley. He did his job with a shot to the head, then fled the scene. Unfortunately for him, a bus kills him before he can retrieve the letter. Meanwhile, a second team comes here, trying to find it. From the looks of this place, they didn’t find much. So what do they do next? They go to plan B.’
Jones nodded in understanding. ‘They noticed our names in the article and realized she had flown to Pittsburgh to meet us. They can’t ask Jean-Pierre for help because he’s dead, so they send gunman number two. He finds you and asks
‘He tries to take me out.’
Jones paused in thought. ‘So, what’s their next move?’
‘If I was them and wanted the letter, I would send more troops to Pittsburgh to chat with you and me. No doubt about it.’
‘Well, that settles it.’
‘Settles, what?’
‘I’m never going back to Pittsburgh.’
Payne grinned at the comment. ‘Not even for the playoffs?’
‘Shit! I forgot about the playoffs!’
‘How could you forget about the playoffs?’
Jones shrugged. Unable to think of a clever retort, he did the next best thing. He changed the subject. ‘Let me ask you a question. Where did Ashley get the letter?’
‘Where do thieves usually get things?’
‘They steal them.’
‘That would be my guess.’
Jones nodded. ‘You think she stole it from the Belgians?’
Payne shook his head. ‘First of all, we’ve only identified one Belgian, not two. We have no idea if the second gunman was a Belgian, an American,
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Mostly just a gut feeling. There’s something about their desperation that leads me to believe they don’t know what it says. I’m guessing they never had it in the first place.’
‘If that’s the case, whom did she take it from? You saw her rap sheet. She stole all the time, but nothing too big. Mostly shoplifting and petty thefts, not museum heists. If this letter is important enough to kill for, someone must have reported it missing.’
‘You’re probably right.’
Payne gave it some thought as he walked out of the kitchen and headed for the bedroom. Other than Petr Ulster, he didn’t know anyone associated with historical artefacts who could provide them with rumours about items for sale on the black market. At least no one he would trust with their lives. Randy Raskin was already searching for the identity of the second shooter. If he discovered a name, he would look at the gunman’s known associates and try to figure out
Unlike the tattered furniture in the other room, the intruders hadn’t used a knife on her mattress. They had leaned it against the wall to look under it, but they hadn’t slashed it open. For that, Payne was grateful. It allowed him to examine all the books and papers on the floor without having to brush away a thin layer of stuffing.
Payne spent the next five minutes searching through her belongings and found two items that interested him. The first was a recent photograph of Ashley. It had been taken at the top of the Rocky Steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the location that Sylvester Stallone, aka Rocky Balboa, had made famous in his Rocky movie series. Ashley was just standing there, smiling, not raising her arms in triumph like hundreds of tourists do every day. But for Payne’s needs, it was perfect. He needed a photo he could casually show to people, and her driver’s licence photo and mug shots were a little dated.
The second item was even more helpful to Payne because it explained why Ashley had been
He spotted it hanging in the corner, right above a card table she had used as her desk. Thumb-tacked to the wall, the calendar had been printed on a bright yellow sheet of paper. A black star filled the tiny box for Monday, 14 December, which was the following day. Next to it, she had written 8 a.m. in red ink and circled it more than once.
This was an appointment she couldn’t afford to miss.
Nothing else had been written in the box, so Payne didn’t know why it was so important until he noticed PBPP at the top of the paper. It was a set of initials he was familiar with.
Suddenly, several aspects of Ashley’s cover story started to make sense.